Chandigarh: The second day of the ongoing Punjab assembly session on Thursday repeatedly witnessed pandemonium with the legislators of the principal opposition party Congress, demanding the dismissal and arrest of the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Cabinet minister Fauja Singh Sarari over an alleged "audio clip about extortion from some transporters."
The session, which began with the Zero hour, saw the Congress legislators arriving at the House wearing aprons showing photos and slogans against the accused minister Sarari, as well as shouting slogans for action against him and going into the well of the House.
Din prevailed as the treasury benches also started raising slogans against the Congress members accusing them to be the "team B of the BJP."
The pandemonium continued till Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan adjourned the House for half an hour. However, the ruckus continued even after the House proceedings resumed and the Speaker asked the Congress members to let the House function, but to no avail as the MLAs of the principal opposition party kept raising slogans while staying put in the well of the House.
It was amid the ruckus that the parliamentary affairs minister Inderbir Singh Nijjar also moved a motion for disqualification of the Congress MLAs Amarinder Singh Raja Warring and Vikram Chaudhary for crossing the floor towards the treasury benches which the Speaker rejected.
However, state finance minister Harpal Singh Cheema told the House that the alleged audio clip in which the accused minister and his former aide were heard about "extortion" was being examined whether it was doctored or not and that action would be taken whosoever would be found to be guilty.
Leader of the Opposition and Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Partap Singh Bajwa demanded that the minister be dismissed from the cabinet and a case be registered against him. He also said that serving a show-cause notice by the party to the minister was not enough.
Another Congress leader Sukhpal Khaira asked the Speaker to give an undertaking that chief minister Bhagwant Mann would give a statement on the issue.
However, refusing to give such a statement, Sandhwan asked the Congress MLAs to let the House function as important public interest issues were to be discussed, though the Congress MLAs repeatedly rushed to the Well of the House to protest raising slogans against the minister and demanded his sacking.
